LG 55LM660T - Features and 3D Performance

Summary

Our Score

9/10

User Score

Review Price £1,800.00

Interface and Smart TV

A further big boost to the LG 55LM660T’s ease of use comes from its redesigned onscreen menus. The Smart Hub screen used to provide a jumping off point to all your sources looks lovely in new, higher-resolution clothes, presenting huge amounts of information and options without looking cluttered or confusing.

We also greatly appreciated the relative ease with which LG’s new set recognised both the PC and Macs on our network versus last year’s sets.

In terms of the content now available through LG’s Smart TV service, it’s pretty vast. We counted around 150 apps in total. However, at least three-quarters of these are more or less completely pointless. Just as well, then, that LG has tacitly acknowledged this by separating apps into Premium (as in, stuff you might actually want to use) and less useful generic ‘App’ listings.

There’s also a dedicated folder on the Smart Hub for accessing 3D video content from LG’s online 3D channel. Again much of this content is pretty cheap and cheerful, but there is the odd gem if you care to seek it out.

Among the premium services are LoveFilm, Netflix, BBC iPlayer, YouTube, AceTrax, Blinkbox, Twitter, Facebook, and BoxOffice365. So it’s fair to say the TV doesn’t sell you short where video streaming sources are concerned.

Picture settings

LG has done its usual good work when it comes to providing you with adjustments for the 55LM660T’s pictures. The set is endorsed by the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF), meaning there are fulsome gamma and colour management tools, as well as a couple of presets an ISF engineer could use to optimise the TV for your room conditions.

What’s really exciting about the 55LM660T, though, is that all LG’s customary flexibility is attached to a clearly high-quality core panel. A combination that results in some excellent picture quality.

3D performance

The star of the show is the 55LM660T’s 3D performance. Regular readers will know that we’ve not always been convinced by LG’s passive 3D system, especially when it’s used on really large screens like that of the 55LM660T. But on the evidence of this TV, it seems like our previous issues may have had more to do with problems in the panel driving the technology than the passive technology itself.

Right away, for instance, you’re attracted to the intense colours and brightness of the 3D picture, making the dark, dingy images associated with some active shutter 3D engines look like some dirty bad memory.

This brightness means, moreover, that dark scenes are replete with the sort of shadow details commonly crushed out on active 3D systems, while the sense of depth to 3D images is impressive. The image’s vibrancy seems to add more distinction to the different ‘layers’ and depth markers within a 3D frame.

Thanks to the use of passive rather than active glasses, the 3D image doesn’t flicker at all, even if you’re watching in a bright room. The passive nature of the glasses also means that we found ourselves able to watch 3D on the 55LM660T over longer stretches of time without feeling knackered.

3D image quality

The 55LM660T’s 3D pictures also look natural, direct and involving, and crucially we felt less troubled than we were on last year’s equivalent model by either the horizontal line structure or reduced resolution issues associated with the passive approach. Sure, you can still see some jaggedness in bright curved edges, or over small, bright objects. And yes, the existence of this line structure does make pictures look a little less than full HD resolution at times.

But this does not mean 3D pictures on the 55LM660T don’t look sharp and detailed. They most definitely do. Especially as the panel inside the TV is good enough to ensure that for the most part it delivers on passive 3D’s ‘no crosstalk’ claim.